Respondents stressed that it is about time
to develop Arab apps to compete with for-
eign apps especially that they offer ser-
vices needed by Arab people and at the
same time maintain and reinforce national
identity, customs and values.
The survey in which 156 UAE smartphone
users participated, found a number of
reasons that prevented Arab apps from
making it to the top charts. 32% of respon-
dents found that the lack of capabilities
and specialized curricula at universities is
the main reason.
21% of participants found that poor mar-
keting, especially on social media sites
is the reason, besides lack of separate
budget for marketing, whereas 14% of
participants believe that the reason lies in
the mainstream rather than creative Arab
mentality. They stated that a significant
number of Arab apps are imitation of exist-
ing apps and not innovative.
13% of participants attributed the short-
age of genuine Arab apps to the lack of
an appropriate environment that supports
and sponsors Arab talents in this field and
directs them in the right way. 6% of par-
ticipants said that lack of professional and
exciting design, user-friendly features and
attractive interface kept them away from
using many Arab apps.
The negligence of developers for updating
and feedback prevented 5% of respon-
dents from using Arab apps, whereas
4% believed that Arab apps are not wide-
spread due to limited number of users,
and their restriction to Arabic-speaking us-
ers compared to apps in English that tar-
get a larger user base.
5% attributed the lack of Arab apps to
other miscellaneous reasons such as the
trust factor, high prices of Arab apps and
lacking excitement and entertainment val-
ue as well as absence of stability in some
Arab countries and affection for everything
“foreign”.
MohamedAbdullah attributes the absence
of Arab apps that fail to become as popular
as other apps or make it to the top charts
like Skype, Facebook and Twitter to many
reasons. He believes that the poor capa-
bilities and lack of innovation and creativ-
ity is the main reason. He points out that
many of Arab app developers only imitate
popular apps, thus lack genuineness. In
addition, poor software development and
negligence of regular updating and feed-
back from users add to the problem.
Hessa Al-Muhairi believes that restricting
these apps to Arabic speakers kept them
away from the international stage. She
wonders why she has to use an app that
nobody else uses. She indicates that one
of the reasons making users download an
app is how many users are already using
it and their relation to the user. In other
Participants in a survey conducted by mGov highlighted the need to work on bridging the gap between
Arab and non-Arab apps. The survey showed that the attention received by smart devices in recent years
is attributed to many reasons, foremost among which was the smart apps offering services to users and
enabling them to communicate with a click of a button.
In a survey conducted by mGov with 156
participants from smartphone users:
32%
for lack
of capabilities,
21%
for
marketing and
14%
for
absence of
professionalism
survey
